Ephesians 4 Part 2

Ephesians 4:17-32

In the preceding verses, Paul went into great detail about the unity of the body of Christ. We are one body headed by Christ and we need to function as one body. There is One Spirit, One Lord and One God who is Father of all. One hope, One faith and One baptism and we are One body. With all this in mind, Paul continues with a therefore – because we are one body who works in unity… this is how the body of Christ needs to function in everyday life. He answers the questions; what should we be about and how do we navigate this world which is full of sin and strife? The message to the Ephesians is the same message we need today. How do we walk as children of the Light in a world determined to live in darkness? What does the church’s response need to be to the ongoing tensions we are currently experiencing? How do we navigate the treacherous waters of racial tensions, anger, feelings of hopelessness, riots and divisiveness while remaining one body in Christ?

Vs. 17-21 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more. But that is not how you learned about the Messiah, assuming you heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus.

The first thing Paul addresses is how we walk, or should I say, how we are NOT to walk. Do not walk as the Gentiles walk – in the futility of their thoughts. We must remember that Ephesus was a hub of Diana or Artemis worship and we know the church had been subjected to false teaching. Paul wrote this to Timothy “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.” (1 Timothy 1:3-4) He warns them to stay away from Gnostic teachings and myths. He reminds the church that they are darkened in their understanding, ignorant and hard hearted. He warns them to stay away from the sinful practices that were constantly around them. He reminds them of the truth they have been taught about the Messiah. And we need these same reminders and warnings. It can be so easy to allow ourselves to dabble in what society has to offer. Some of it sounds good, but beware of the wrong thinking behind it. As believers in the Messiah, we are to take a different approach and understand what is happening around us through a different lens – through Christ who is truth. Reading my facebook feed can be very enlightening, especially the past 8 months of covid 19 and the political climate we are in here in the U.S. I have to remind myself that our purpose as members of the body of Christ is not to advance a political agenda or a social agenda. Our purpose is to advance the kingdom of God. When I look at the life of Christ I do not find that advancement through a political system, nor do I find it through a social agenda. I find the advancement of the kingdom of God through the teaching of the gospel, through the relationships that He built and through the life He lived.

Vs. 22-24 You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

Here Paul is reminding us we have put away our former life. The word for former is proteron, which means a reversal of the natural life. And that is what we are to be about. Our life in Christ needs to be a complete reversal from our former life. It’s not just about walking on a new path. It’s about a 180 degree turn, We turn our backs on our former life and walk in a totally new direction. The old self is corrupted by deceitful desires. The word for desires is epithymias. It is a word that describes a longing for what is forbidden. The word for deceit is apatēs, which is a word used for camouflage. It gives us a picture of trying to make what is forbidden look like it’s okay and even right. We try to deceive others as well as ourselves. But we are to have a new mind. Romans 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Only through the renewing of our minds can we put on the new self and walk in truth. The following verses give us a step by step or an action by action response to walking in truth.

Vs. 25 Since you put away lying, Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.

Lying is such an easy thing to do. I’m not necessarily talking about the big lies, just the little white lies. They won’t hurt anything, right? We’ve all told a little white lie before – I know I have. And some of us have told some big ones too! But Paul says here we need to speak truth, not just because we should, although that’s a good reason, but because we are members of one another. The word for “one another” is allēlōn, which means mutually. The same word is used when Paul asks the Galatians to bear one another’s burdens. Because we are all members of the same body, we need to speak truth to each other and be transparent with one another. Speaking truth also means we encourage and discipline. We don’t let our brothers and sisters in Christ go in the wrong direction. We also do not put on a false mask of happy, happy, joy, joy if that’s not how we’re doing or a false piety. If we can’t be open and honest with our family, than who?

Vs. 26-27 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the Devil an opportunity.

Many may think anger is the problem but it’s not. Being angry is fine. In fact, Jesus was so angry, he overturned the tables in the temple. I remember a sermon one time about righteous indignation. Righteous indignation is anger over mistreatment, insults, or malice against people. We probably need a little more righteous indignation in the world right now. There are a lot of innocent people who are mistreated and maligned. A lot of children who can’t stand up for themselves. A lot of insults being thrown around. As believers, we should be the ones standing up for those who are beaten down. Maybe it’s time to overturn some tables in some places and let it be known we will not stand by and allow people to be mistreated anymore. Righteous indignation is anger that builds up the downtrodden and makes a way for the mistreated. It stands up against those who are taking advantage of others and cries out for justice for those who can’t cry out. But, there is an anger that leads to sin and we must heed the warning of Paul. That is anger that is out of control. Anger that leads to destruction and tearing down, not building up. We can see this taking place right now. Righteous anger at racism has turned into looting and destruction. I can see why Paul warns us about this. When anger loses control, the message behind the anger loses its power. People concentrate on the loss of control instead of the important issues at hand. When Jesus overturned the tables, His message was clear – My Father’s house is NOT a den of thieves that takes advantage of people and steals their money but it is a house of prayer. His message had power. When we lose control of our anger, we allow the Devil an opportunity to work. I can tell you right now, issues like racism, child abuse, and inequality are too important to allow Satan a foothold of any kind. We must remember, when we allow God to speak through us, powerful things can happen.

Vs 28 The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.

We all know stealing is wrong. It’s one of the big 10 after all. Thou shall not steal. Most of us can probably say we haven’t “stolen” anything. But would that be true? Probably not. We may not have stolen anything from a store or broken into a neighbors house to steal, but how many of us have stolen time from work or time from other people? I believe this is the stealing Paul is addressing. He says, we must do honest work with our own hands. The Greek actually says kopiatō (toil; grow weary from your work) ergazomenos (work till you accomplish something). So Paul is saying we need to work to accomplish something so hard we are actually weary. Why??? So we have something to share with those in need. The book of Proverbs is full of warnings against idleness which leads to poverty. It says in Proverbs 15 a lazy person’s life is a path overgrown with thorns and thistles. These past 8 months has given my husband and I the opportunity to concentrate on the house and yard work. (Too much time if you ask me, but it is what it is). One thing we noticed when we started was the weeds and brier around our property. Brier, if you let it go unchecked, will literally wrap itself around the trees and kill them. It is a great picture of what idleness can do. If we become idle in our work and in our life, we are allowing those weeds to choke opportunities to further the kingdom of God. Idleness and tardiness is stealing time from our places of work and from people. But what I really note here is the why. It is so we will have something to provide for ourselves and for those in need. We are one body in Christ and must have the resources to look out for each other. That is what the body does.

Vs. 29 No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.

When Paul says no foul language, he is not talking about swear words, although we should avoid those as well. The word used for foul is sapros, which means putrid, decaying, and rotten. The better word is don’t let anything unwholesome come out of your mouth. We are to build each other up and give grace to those who hear our words. I just returned from church this morning where the pastor talked about our words. The old saying that sticks and stones can break our bones but words will never hurt us is a misnomer. Words are powerful and can be used to hurt, heal, belittle, uplift, spread rumor or encourage. Paul tells us we are to use our words to uplift, encourage, give grace and build up. This doesn’t mean we only say nice and sweet things. We are suppose to hold each other accountable as well. In Paul’s letter to Timothy he says, “I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of His appearing and His kingdom: Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, be serious about everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:1-5 Here we see one can encourage even when correcting or rebuking. We rebuke because we love and desire to extend grace to others. We don’t want to see our sisters and brothers fall victim to half truths and false teaching. We all have an itch to hear what we want to hear. It doesn’t always feel good to have someone direct us back to the right path. But, if done in a loving and graceful way, we will continue to walk in that right path. It goes back to speaking the truth. When done in love, our words will be an encouragement to the body of Christ.

Vs. 30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by Him for the day of redemption.

This brings us right to the next instruction. Don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. The word for grieve is lypeite and literally means to distress and cause sorrow. So to grieve God’s Holy Spirit is to cause pain and distress. How can we cause God pain? Through our disobedience, denial, by not trusting Him, and by not seeking after the truth. Throughout scripture we see the nation of Israel go through a cycle of obedience, straying, disobedience, discipline, repentance and obedience, which starts the cycle all over again. If you want to read about God’s grief just read the book of Lamentations. It is a collection of five poems of mourning and sorrow. In Psalm 81:11-14 God says, “But My people did not listen to Me; Israel did not obey Me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own plans. If only My people would listen to Me and Israel would follow My ways, I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes.” Can you hear the grief? If only… Jesus expresses that grief when he says in Matthew 23:27, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! She who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, yet you were not willing!” Make no mistake, God wants to bless us. He wants to gather us up in His arms. He wants us to trust Him so He can lead us down the right path. We are sealed by Him for the day of redemption. So don’t’ grieve God’s Holy Spirit. Trust and obey.

Vs. 31-32 All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

Now more than ever we need to heed Paul’s words in this passage. We should no longer walk like the world walks. It is so easy to respond to the current criticism of the church with like criticism of society. It’s easy to be bitter, angry, and wrathful toward those who would come after the church. Instead, as the church of God, we need to respond with truth in grace, just as God has given grace to us. The other day, I read a post on facebook. It was a believing friend of mine who was really criticizing a particular person for their belief and stand on a particular issue. They disagreed with the person and the post was harsh, and unkind. The interesting thing is, the person being criticized was also a believer. Here it is very clear. When we speak truth to one another, we are to be kind and compassionate, forgiving one another. We can disagree. We can hold each other accountable and call each other out if we are in the wrong, but we cannot be wrathful and sin in our anger. This is even more important when we address non-believers. If we are to be an example of Christ likeness, then we must speak to others in a way that exemplifies Christ. We must be truthful, honest, and call sin for what it is, but we cannot do so in anger and malice. We must always remember God’s amazing love and forgiveness when we respond to others.

We are one body in Christ. We are to walk in unity and in love. This doesn’t mean we will always agree. But, when we do disagree, we must do so in grace and not let our anger get out of control. This is why Paul says not to let the sun go down on our anger. Work it out. Come together to talk things through. Speak truth in love and grace in all you do. Don’t compromise when it comes to sin, but do not lose control of your anger, allowing Satan to win the day. When we can do this, then we can function as a true body of Christ.